This invention relates generally to spraying and cleaning devices and, more particularly, to a self-contained mobile apparatus useful for cleaning and sanitizing public rest rooms, commercial kitchens, hospital facilities and other types of institutional spaces wherein a high degree of cleanliness is desired.
Today there is an increasing emphasis on maintaining clean-looking and sanitary conditions in a variety of commercial settings. Health care facilities, such as hospitals, clinics and physician's offices, have long recognized the need to keep their premises clean-looking and sanitary. Other businesses are becoming increasingly aware of cleanliness, not only from the standpoint of avoiding potential liability for indoor pollution and health hazards but from maintaining good customer relations and improved employee productivity as well. Today, such diverse businesses as gasoline stations, restaurants, bars, manufacturing plants and retail stores pride themselves on the cleanliness of their rest rooms and other areas available to public use. Along with the awareness of the need for clean looking and sanitary facilities comes the need to actually achieve such results in an efficient and cost-effective manner, without exposing the cleaning personnel to health hazards.
It is common for business establishments to clean their facilities one or more times per day. To maintain a high level of cleanliness on a continuous basis and with a reasonable degree of efficiency requires that cleaning procedures be standardized and simplified to the extent practical. One cleaning technique that is particularly well suited for use in rest rooms, kitchens, health care facilities and the like, wherein the walls and floors are tiled and generally impervious to water, utilizes a spray of water, detergent/disinfectant or other cleaning fluid to do the primary cleaning, agitating, disinfecting and rinsing. By spraying a pressurized fluid against the surfaces to be cleaned and allowing the spray to air dry, dirt and grime are agitated and carried away and the surface is disinfected in an effective, time-efficient manner. The need for laborious scrubbing, which may otherwise expose the worker to toxic chemicals and germs, is thus avoided.
A variety of spray cleaning devices have previously been proposed. Typically, such devices comprise a wheeled cart that carries such items as a fluid reservoir, a pressure source and a wand or spray nozzle for spraying pressurized fluid against the surfaces to be cleaned. The cleaning personnel wheel the apparatus around from room to room as needed to perform the required cleaning operations. However, prior devices, as a whole, have not been optimized for use in today's business environment.
In some prior devices, the cart itself is simply a standard, utilitarian cart that is often made of metal and subject to rust and corrosion. Such carts typically are not designed and constructed with ease of cleaning in mind and contain many corners and crevices where dirt and grime can accumulate and harmful bacteria can multiply. With such devices an anomaly can occur, wherein the device that is used to keep facilities clean and spotless itself looks grimy and shabby and serves as a carrier, transporting germs from place to place.
Still other devices are intended for highly specialized use such as cleaning operating rooms in hospitals. Although effective, such devices are large, heavy and expensive and frequently provide far greater capacity than that which is needed for less critical applications. Such specialized devices, although well suited for their intended tasks, are not the best solution for many other applications.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for a specialized cleaning cart that is well suited to the task of cleaning public and commercial facilities with effectiveness, speed and economy while minimizing worker exposure to cleaning chemicals and contaminated surfaces.